I encourage you to make 2016 the year that you fulfill personal, career, and spiritual goals and begin walking in your unique purpose. No more frustration with stagnant careers or relationships, while wishing for a meaningful and rewarding life. It’s time to eliminate the obstacles holding you back. It’s time to begin mapping your journey towards purposeful living.

It’s time to GET IT DONE!

To begin, let’s look at what I call my 10 key Compass Principles. Why are they called Compass Principles? These sequential steps are critical in helping you navigate your journey to a purpose-filled life while never losing sight of your destination.

Assess Where You Are. Ask yourself (and answer truthfully and candidly), “Am I living a purposeful life?”

Determine Where You Should Be (in alignment with God’s plan). This is called the Visioning Process. Think beyond your physical sight or what you know. Be open to God’s inspired vision for your life. The best place for you to prosper may not be apparent to you at your current stage in life.

Identify Your Passions. Write down the things that fulfill you and give you joy, even if you are NOT paid to do them.

Identify Your Gifts And Talents. God gives us so many clues as to what our gifts and talents are. Ask some of those closest and trusted people in your life what are your dominant strengths. Always allow prayer to lead you to the path of our Heavenly Father, who is the giver of all gifts!

Identify Your Opportunity Areas. Be aware of opportunities that present themselves where you move closer to your desired goals. For example, if you desire to be a public speaker, someone may host an event where you’re able to speak and share your gift, even if it’s a non-paid opportunity. Do not overlook small beginnings. They always lead to greater flourishes.

Identify Destiny Blockers. Ask yourself what is blocking you from living a purposeful life. Is it time? Money? Lack of resources? Specific skills? Whatever it is, it shouldn’t matter. There will never be a perfect time to start a journey into a purposeful life. There will always be something you think is “missing”. But you can overcome and eliminate all excuses by simply taking action and trusting in God. Excuses are parasites that will hinder or even stop your progress. God will fill in the gaps, no matter what you feel is missing.

Create An Action Plan. The old Benjamin Franklin quote still holds true: if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Write down a plan to align your passions to goals (actions, timelines). This plan should include short, intermediate, and long term goals.

Take The First Step. Be intentional about getting started. Move decisively towards living a purposeful life. Don’t worry if—or when—it becomes difficult or uncomfortable. As mentioned earlier, taking the first step is how you overcome the destiny blockers that hold you back.

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” ~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

And for my own personal favorite quote:

“You’ll never know what you can achieve until you take steps toward what you believe.” ~ Jewel Brodie-Reid

Over the course of my professional life, I made good and bad decisions that significantly impacted my career. Most of my good decisions were the result of what I learned from prior experiences, the influence of good managers, and advice from trusted co-workers & friends. Most of my bad decisions were the result of a lack of business acumen, naivety to the politics of Corporate America, and failure to receive constructive criticism. It took several years for me to figure out that my work environment wasn’t going to change to suit my wishes. I needed to change.

Below are just a few of my career blunders.

Failure to demonstrate leadership – Leadership is an important attribute that demonstrates the ability to guide and direct a group. Early on in my career, I failed to take on leadership opportunities or speak up on various topics within project teams. As a result, I was viewed as a shy employee who lacked the fortitude to lead teams. I noticed coworkers who had started their careers with me were quickly moving up the corporate ladder as my growth opportunities remained stagnant. When I compared their skills to mine, our educational qualifications were similar. The difference was that they had clearly demonstrated leadership skills in their daily interactions with management.

I soon realized that I needed to make an effort to demonstrate leadership. Consequently, I began assuming leadership roles on various project teams. Although I was somewhat introverted, I intentionally discussed topics in meetings to show my engagement and knowledge. Lastly, I let my manager know that I was interested in opportunities that strengthened my leadership skills. Doing these things helped resuscitate my career development and enabled me to transition into leadership roles within the organization.

Failure to work as a supportive Team Member – While highlighting individual skills and knowledge are very important, it is equally important to work as a supportive team member. Teamwork encourages cross-functional input that is essential to project success. One of the mistakes I used to make was failing to assist coworkers on projects when asked. My excuse? I always had too much work to do. Naturally, this didn’t endear me to my coworkers, and you can take a guess as to whether they reciprocated and helped me when I needed it. As I look back on those days, I realized that no matter how much work I had to do, I always had an opportunity to assist my team in some manner. Even small, sincere efforts demonstrate teamwork and support, and actions like these are what people remember when you ask for help with a critical project.

Failure to diversify skills and abilities – It’s good to be proficient in a specialized area. However, if you fail to diversify your skill set, you limit opportunities for growth and career advancement. After graduating from college, I worked as an Industrial Engineer doing tasks such as time and motion studies, production management, and quality assurance. While these were great skills to have, I knew that I didn’t want to continue doing these tasks long term. As a result, I sought out training opportunities to diversify my skill-set so that I would be considered for other roles. I was trained and certified as a Six Sigma Black Belt, which opened up roles for me in Human Resources, Healthcare, Market Research, and Education.

Failure to accept constructive criticism – Constructive criticism can be difficult to receive, but it provides useful insight into opportunity areas. For years, I was never able to receive constructive criticism without becoming defensive. Before the feedback was given in its entirely, I was already thinking about my rebuttal. As a result, I missed out on a great opportunity to grow and develop professionally and personally. Luckily, a manager explained to me that he wasn’t giving feedback to be critical, but to ensure that I was successful in my role. This feedback was eye-opening for me. Since that discussion, I resist the urge to be defensive when someone gives me constructive criticism. I listen to determine how the feedback can be used for growth and development.

I didn’t always make the best decisions in my career. But I was committed to learning from my mistakes and making better decisions to make my career successful. As a result, I’m now a Corporate Director of Process Excellence, who leads employees through a systematic continuous improvement method, and a Certified Life Purpose Coach® who coaches and mentors individuals to achieve their personal and career goals.

Are you making any of these career blunders? What can you do differently to ensure career success?

I had the opportunity to speak with a CEO a few weeks ago. In my mind, this individual had achieved great career success. He had successfully climbed the corporate ladder. He was well respected by his peers. He had recently launched his own company and was currently the presiding CEO. However, when I asked him how he was able to achieve career success, his response was “I faced many challenges which forced me to build fortitude, stamina and resilience.”

As I continued to talk with this CEO, he began to share the impact that his career ambitions had on his family and health. He reminded me that there was a huge cost paid for the level of success that he had achieved. As I ended our conversation, I asked him what was different about his life now. He simply responded by saying, “Even though I’m a CEO, I do not have the financial means that I use to have due to the financial risk that went into creating my own business. However, I have my family which is the most important element of my life. I’m less stressed and I’m happy”.

As you define career success for your life, always remember to prioritize what’s most important. The cost of success can be a high price if fulfilling success factors are not a part of your plan.

You have been in your current role for quite some time. You feel like you have made significant contributions to the organization. However, there appear to be limited opportunities for growth and advancement. Now what?

It’s time to take a career assessment. Ask yourself these simple questions. Are you satisfied with your current job? Are you in a role that’s fulfilling? Are you challenged? If your answer to any of the aforementioned questions is no, then it may be time to consider a new career opportunity. Take time to define and evaluate your career goals. Only you can determine if your career is headed in the right direction.

Have you grown into adulthood but still find yourself asking, “What do I want to do when I grow up?” This may seem like a childish question; however, I have met women in their late 30s to early 40s who are still not sure what career will bring them fulfillment. They have either worked in a non-gratifying job for years or they have found themselves frequently changing jobs in hopes of attaining contentment and satisfaction. If you took a moment to evaluate where you are in your career today, what would be revealed?